My kind of normal
by Sharingan300
Summary: (Chisame x Setsuna) Normal. That had always been her keyword, her anchor. One Mundus Magicus trip later and her world was decidedly knocked on its ass sideways, and she stumbled. But arms caught her before she could fall, and understanding red eyes met her own. She was far from "normal", but Chisame didn't give a damn. For her normal had just found *her*.
1. What do you mean you're like me?

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Mahou Sensei Negima! Or any of the characters or concepts contained therein! If I did, then let me tell you, that Setsuna and Konoka would have actually hooked up somewhere in the middle of it, Setsuna would have dueled Eishun as well as Konoemon to earn their respect as she asks for her hand in marriage and-

WHAP!

Ahem! I am only doing this because my mind is a scary place and forces me to! I make absolutely NO money off of this! (Sad kitten is me!)  
Onwards with the fanfiction! *Sizable bump forms*

* * *

Chapter 1: What do you mean you're like me!?

Things weren't supposed to turn out like this.

They were supposed to go on a little trip. Like a school trip. Yeah. Everyone knows what those are like, right?  
You go around in one big group taking in some local sights, breaking up into smaller groups to explore on your own for a  
few hours before meeting up again and going to a hotel to sleep. Days filled with early risings, boring local history lessons  
coupled with some crap assignment made up on the spot just to make sure you didn't end up having _too_ much fun, coupled  
with a few hours of freedom before curfew. And then you'd catch a ride back home at an _ungodly_ hour and be back in your  
own house and bed again by the next nightfall.  
Yeah, Nice and simple. That's what they were _supposed_ to experience.

So why in all the Hells' name did they end up getting tangled up in all THAT!? Running through jungles, fighting for their lives  
against frickin' magical _beasts_ that seemed to have come directly out of the imagination of a deranged hentai artist (She still got  
the heeby-jeebies when she so much as _looked_ at anything with tentacles), having their teacher (who was TEN by the way!),  
plunge himself into a kind of darkness that surely only existed in fantasy novels (She still wasn't sure she had forgiven him for  
making her babysit him for DAYS while he struggled for his very soul, with that _infernal_ thing of a man as her only source of company!  
And then he'd had the _gall_ to wake up at the last friggin' second, like he'd made an appointment!), topped off with intercepting  
a plot to destroy the entire magical world that was so insane and nonsensical it would _have_ to work (Destroying a planet, not  
just a room or a building but a PLANET, with what amounted to a magical _stick_? Wielding it to cast flashy spells and such, sure.  
But… Damn! There's a limit even to a fantasy… Seriously!), led by an evil organization whose only opposition was… A bunch of kids  
who were very much still in school and who weren't even legally allowed to _drink_ yet! As if all _that_ wasn't enough, the topping  
was finished off with the mother of all "Last Boss" rushes in a climax so cliché it was crap-quality fanfiction worthy!

Hasegawa Chisame. A girl who cherished normality and detested tales of fantasy and idiotic behavior. Who only wanted to  
be an onlooker, never a looker. A reviewer, never an actress. Pulled into a string of events that ended up deciding the fate  
of an entire world.

Once this all really truly dawned on her, Chisame had quite literally sought out the hardest-looking wall in her vicinity and  
banged her head against it in an attempt to drive the idiocy of reality out of it. A smart and down-to-earth girl driven  
to stupidity…_by_ stupidity!

But in the end… After everything was said and done… It was actually okay. She actually felt rather fine. Crazy hijinks, insane  
but real world-destroying villains aside, she felt fine. Something she realized with no small amount of surprise.

Throughout their journey, everything had changed.

_She_, had changed.

However, despite her actually turning out alright in the end, she still felt uneasy, several years after their adventure, when she thought back on a specific point during the chaos in Mundus Magicus. Uneasy and… Immensely comforted.

* * *

At some point, the way everything seemed to move between 'Everything's quite alright' (Like the first few moments after having  
stepped through the gate), 'Crap in a basket!' (When Fate and his crew turned up at the gate), 'Smoke 'em if you got 'em, people!'  
(When Fate quite literally _gate-crashed_ their party, or when Negi almost succumbed to the darkness of Evangeline's scroll) and  
'_Fuck_ me, we're all going to Hell!' (Every damn time she thought they were going to die… Which had been OFTEN!), something  
snapped inside her. Something broke. It wasn't so much the fantasy-like nature of it all, but rather the _reality_ of it, that finally  
caught up with the hacker and engulfed her.

Separating herself from the rest of "Negi's band of merry misfits" as Rakan had so _lovingly_ christened them, Chisame had  
slipped away to somewhere a bit more isolated.  
As the noise and occasional shouted curse followed by an explosion of some description and cheerful laughter gradually faded  
to a low murmur a distance behind her, Chisame stumbled into the ruin of a small tower, barely taller than herself now.  
Coming to a stop near the edge, she stood there for a while. Eyes trained on the vast landscape and nothing at all at  
the same time.

Slowly… The tears began to fall.

Leaning against a stone square, the redhead sank down to sitting, hand clasped over her mouth to try and quell the sounds  
it kept making, her eyes already spilling water.

It was stupid. Feeling like this.  
The gang had more or less come back together, and everything looked to have returned to the 'Everything's quite alright' setting.

Yeah… _Right_.

Negi was struggling with himself, the darkness becoming difficult to contain at times. He put up a brave face, as if he  
wasn't only ten years old, while in reality he was fretting and worrying himself to bits over Fate, defeating him and his  
band of miscreants while also somehow stopping them from destroying the world and killing everyone in it. As if HE was the  
ONLY one who could actually _do_ something about it! That kid and his honest nature and "I will find some way to save them all!"  
attitude was enough to drive her absolutely _bonkers_! Who in their right mind would even _think_ of such a thing!?

He wasn't from an alien planet where his parents stuck him in a spacecraft just before it exploded and sent him to Earth  
where he was raised by farmers!

When Chisame was honest with herself, like she was now, sitting out here alone, she knew it wasn't just Negi.  
_Everyone_ were on edge. _Everyone_ had doubts. And _everyone_ worried in some way or another.

Choking out a curse, Chisame released her hold on her mouth. The sounds of her crying, though still kept at a subdued sobbing,  
seemed to bounce on the surrounding stone. Throwing one arm around herself while wiping at her overflowing eyes  
with the other, she finally tore her glasses off her face with a broken snarl and leaned sideways against the cold stone,  
holding herself as she broke down.  
It was just too much. To take in all the crap she'd seen and process it as not a fantasy but reality. The reality of all the  
monstrous mages and crap. The reality of her being just a girl with no special power to speak of. The reality of her death becoming  
a very real future possibility. And the reality of her ten year old teacher who was trying to shoulder it all…

"What…! Just what…!" She ground out, her voice broken with sobs. "Just what kind of _crap_…! IS all this!?"

Her body shivered, wracked with sobs and her crying. Pulling her legs up close, her knees were soon warm with  
her tears as she tried, desperately, to find some form of solace within her mind. But she found none. Instead she  
found only the memories of the shit Negi'd gone through during his Magia Erebia training, his face, the disappointment  
in himself she had seen when he had thought no one was looking… The-

"Graah…! Just what the _Hell_ is this…!?"

"That-"

Jerking her head away from the square stone with a startled gasp, Chisame fumbled with her glasses as she whirled  
around to locate the source of the unexpected sound.

"-would be 'reality'… Unfortunately enough, Chisame-san."

Through eyes still blurry with tears, she saw a rather familiar person. One she knew the face of quite well. And while she  
would have been able to pick her out in a crowd at any time, _especially_ now that her hair was as white as snow (which, by her  
own admission, was her original hair color. She started dyeing it black because of some personal crap she didn't feel like  
discussing at the time, but said that after clearing things up with Konoka once and for all after rendezvousing in a village  
somewhere, she didn't feel any need to keep coloring it.) and her eyes having gone from brown to red (contact lenses,  
another habit obviously ditched), she could not claim to actuall_y_ _know_ her.  
Grounding her teeth together, Chisame thought 'Out of ALL the people to find me like this…! It just HAD to be the  
goddamned birdbrain, didn't it!?'.  
Turning back to her earlier view, the hacker wiped at her eyes.

"… What do _you_ want…?" She asked rudely, too agitated to be bothered with pleasantries.

"Just to help." The other girl responded simply.

Chisame snorted and gave a weak sob as she laughed.

"_Help_…? Hah…! Help who, me? Hah…! Yeah… Yeah that'd be _exactly_ what I need right now…! I mean, I came out here  
to be alone, so, CLEARLY, what I need right now, is fucking _company_ isn't it!? Yeah… Yeah, real _brilliant_ deduction  
skills there…! Sakurazaki!"

Though her sarcastic words would probably have pissed Asuna right off and made Negi fidget, all they did to Setsuna  
was blow past her like a gentle summer breeze.  
Watching her classmate for a few moments, mostly to see if she would say anything else, Setsuna started to slowly  
approach her. One step at a time.

"I want you to know that I understand, Chisame-san." Setsuna spoke. "I believe I have been in much the same  
place you are right now, so I think I can-"

A loud bark of a laugh coming suddenly from the redhead in front of her cut off her words.

"_Understand_!?" Chisame whirled around, her face practically _glowed_ with anger. "You're a half-human half-_bird_! You're like  
something out of a fantasy novel! Just…! Just what the _Hell_ do you _understand_ about me!? You…! You…! _Birdbrain_!"

"For starters I know we are both ALIVE!"

Chisame recoiled from the sudden yell. To see (and more importantly _hear_) the swordswoman actually _raise_ her voice  
was a true rarity. Even she, as someone who barely knew her, knew this. But while Chisame had been angry, there  
was no anger to be found in Setsuna's facial expression. Instead she radiated determination.

The kind she showed when heading into a battle.

Watching her classmate blink in surprised bewilderment, Setsuna's expression softened and she stopped walking.  
She now stood approximately four steps away from her classmate.

"We are both alive… Right here and now, in this Mundus Magicus." Setsuna said, keeping her voice calm and even.  
"I know I fit the bill for your idea of a 'fantasy character' rather well, but that still doesn't change the fact that I am  
alive, same as you."

She kept speaking calmly, almost as if she was holding a lecture. And for some reason, Chisame couldn't muster up  
the energy to snap at her again. She just turned a bit more toward her, resting the back of her head against the  
stone once again.

"… What do you want, Sakurazaki…?" Chisame asked tiredly.

Her tears had stopped for the moment. The grief that brought them were still present in the back of her head, however.  
Threatening to overwhelm her again at any time.  
In the face of this, Setsuna offered a small smile.

"I want to help you, Chisame-san." She repeated. "Since from where I'm standing right now, it would seem like you are  
in the same place I was, at the start of the term."

As if suddenly realizing what she just said, Setsuna chuckled.

"The start of the term… Feels like another life at this point." She reflected.

Chisame was _not_ in the mood for making friendly with her classmate however, and showed it.

"You are a half-_demon_, wielding the sword in ways that _really_ shouldn't be possible, you have wings tucked into  
your back that you can actually use to _fly_ with, and to top it all off, you are the childhood friend and bodyguard of  
the sole heiress to the old and powerful Konoe family. Me? I'm a reclusive hacker." Chisame stated as-a-matter-of-factly.  
"How in _Hell_ are you and _I_ the same?"

'_Blunt and to the point. Just like always._' Setsuna thought with a smile.  
When she spoke next, surprise broke out unhindered across the redhead's face.

"We _were_ the same. In that you are an _onlooker_,"

Chisame's eyes widened.

"Just like I _was_. At the start of the term."

Setsuna finished her sentence and took a few steps to the side, Chisame's gaze following her, intrigued now.  
Casting a glance in her direction, Setsuna smiled and raised her right index finger.

"Tell me if any of this sounds familiar." She said and leaned her weight on one foot, bending the other leg a little  
while crossing her arms lazily. "At the start of the term, I didn't socialize with anyone. Fact is, I made it a point not to.  
It made it easy for me to go on about my own business without any distractions."

'_Like working with my Chiu website._'

Chisame blinked. Surprised at how easily she made the comparison.

"Interacting with others would just get in the way and complicate things."

'_There's no way they'd understand my hobby anyway._'

Again, Chisame blinked in surprise at herself. This wasn't the way this was supposed to go! They were way too different!  
_Way_ different! Like, down to the basics different!  
So then, why in the Hells did her words connect with her so naturally!?

"My job was all I needed to focus on. Protecting Konoka, that was all I had to do. As such, I needed to be able to keep  
track of the people around her at all times. And being an _onlooker_, standing _outside_ and looking _in_, made that bit easy."

'_I need to keep track of everyone else so they don't find out about me being Chiu or try to approach me. Even _I_ get that my  
hobby would be considered weird. And besides, if word got out that I'm Chiu, and my fans got my address…  
Nope, I am __not__ even gonna go there._' Chisame found herself thinking.

Something came into Setsuna's eyes then, as she stood there, reflecting. A form of melancholy, almost. She sure as Hell  
didn't look _happy_, that was for sure.

"I swore, all on my own, that I would protect Konoka from any and all kinds of harm and pain. And that included any kind  
of stress coming her way too. I did my best to intercept these harmful things, and in the cases where I couldn't, I made  
sure to remove them from Konoka's shoulders and put them on my own instead." Setsuna reminisced, staring off  
into the distance. "… And for a while there, at the start of the term, I actually thought I was doing a good job at it."

The whitenette shook her head slowly, keeping her gaze straight.

"… But I was wrong. So _woefully_ wrong. All I was doing was piling on more and more stress, more and more _weight_  
on my shoulders. Weighing me down all the heavier. Hell, I wasn't even protecting Konoka all that well, either. Instead of  
_shielding_ her from pain, by distancing myself I was causing her pain. It took the school trip, coupled with the combined  
efforts of Konoka, Asuna, Negi-sensei and even Evangeline to make me see just what the Hell I was doing…"

Watching the swordswoman like this and hearing her words, made something constrict inside Chisame. It was as if  
every word she said hit something within her. Resonated with her, somehow.

Setsuna suddenly smiled, as if she had heard Chisame's thoughts. Though the gesture did not quite reach her eyes.

"You know, I actually find it quite funny…" Setsuna said and turned her head toward her, faint smile and all. "The way you're  
constantly getting on Negi-sensei's case about taking on too much all by himself. Of shouldering too much on his own.  
Fact, you get on his case even more than _Asuna_ sometimes, and THAT, is saying something."

Chisame frowned.  
Where the Hell did _that_ come from? Was she making fun of her? No, that would not make sense. So, what was it then?

"… What are you on about?"

She hadn't planned on listening to her this much. She hadn't planned on actually giving her words any  
real thought. And she _really_ had not planned on sitting there, waiting, no _wanting_ her to continue talking, either.  
She was almost starting to feel like… Like she had known her for a long time.  
Like they really had led similar lives up to this point… Which was of course _ridiculous_.  
… But still.

"Oh, you _know_…" Setsuna said, her smile changing, becoming a bit warmer, a bit truer. "Chiding him for hiding stuff  
from you and trying to deal with it on his own. Arguing or outright yelling at him for having either hidden or attempted  
something dangerous, or found something out that would directly influence what course of action we should take and  
pondering it without saying a word, and so on and so forth. Even going so far as to hit him or pull his ears sometimes."

Maybe she was tired. Maybe she was just fed up. Chisame didn't know. But something was responsible for the _utter_ frustration  
that built up in an instant inside her chest. Keeping the things Negi did or didn't do, should or shouldn't do, bottled up  
inside and constantly fretting over them was one thing. But hearing it _said_ by someone else…  
It filled her with the need to vent.

"That… _Wise-ass_ little brat…! He just…! He just…! He just drives me BONKERS sometimes! And he's TEN! I just don't know  
what the Hell to DO with that kid sometimes!"

She would have gone on for a reasonable amount of time, but the sound of a gentle laugh stopped her.

"He drives us _all_ bonkers at times, Chisame-san." Setsuna chuckled. "But it really IS funny, though."

Chisame felt her frustration recede a bit, but her frown stayed on strong.

"How you keep pestering Negi-sensei about shouldering too much…" Setsuna said and walked over to her classmate,  
coming to stand right next to her, only a step away, her smile turning gentle. "When you are doing the _exact_ same  
thing yourself."

'…!'

"Wh…!"

Chisame tried. She really did.  
She drew in air, inhaled it into her lungs, opened her mouth and everything.  
And yet-

… Nothing came out.

Only the sounds of air escaping her lungs in vain attempts at forming words.  
Chisame just sat there. Staring up at her classmate in surprise bordering on shock.

She had her.  
Had nailed her.  
Had nailed her at _spear_-point, even.

It was utterly ridiculous. Here she was, with one of her classmates, one she had barely said two words past  
"Good morning" to. One she _really_ did not know. A girl and yet a foreign creature. A person she did not know.

And yet Setsuna had hit the mark so completely that Chisame couldn't figure out a single thing to say. She instead thought  
back, reflecting on the arguments she could remember having with their teacher. She grasped for the words she had  
used and ways she had felt.

… And realized that Setsuna was right.

Hell, it was the very reason she had even gone out to where they were sitting/standing. The very reason why she  
had sought solitude away from the others that evening.  
The very reason why she had suffered for weeks on end. So much so that she had even broken down hard enough  
to cry. Because she had tried to take away Negi's pain, his anxiety, his worries. All in an attempt to protect him.  
To spare the kid, for that was really what he was, from all that suffering and worry.  
A dry chuckle made its way up her throat.

Gods, she was _such_ a hypocrite.

Chisame sat there, chuckling at herself. At the irony of it all.  
Her eyes were blurring, filling once again with water.

"Hey… Chisame-san?"

Wiping at her eyes, the redhead looked up just in time to see her classmate sit down beside her. The whitenette placed  
a hand meant to comfort on her shoulder.

"… Allow me to offer you the same advice you always give Negi-sensei." Setsuna said and squeezed her shoulder gently.  
"… Don't try and take on the pain of someone else. For even though that might _seem_ noble and like the right thing  
to do, especially in certain situations, if you keep on doing it, then the weight will keep piling up on you. Until the  
point where you can't even move, much less breathe."

By this point, Chisame was trembling. Biting her lower lip with choked sounds fighting to escape, eyes shut tight  
but leaking all the same.

"I know we barely know one another, Chisame-san…." Setsuna said with a smile. "But won't you share some of  
your pain with me? Just enough so you can breathe again…"

Setsuna moved her hand from Chisame's shoulder to her back and flattened it. Feeling a slight pressure pushing  
her forward, the redhead didn't waste any time and dove in, throwing herself into the embrace of a classmate she  
barely knew half an hour ago. Clinging to her desperately, her breakdown imminent.

It was at this moment that Chisame realized that Setsuna had actually come out there alone. No Konoka at her  
side. No Asuna. And no Negi.

"Why did you come out here… Setsuna-san?" Chisame hiccupped.

"To help a friend trapped in the same place I was at the beginning of the term." Setsuna replied simply.

"_Why_?" Chisame took a shaky breath and heaved a sob.

"Because I've been where you are right now. And I know what you're going through." Setsuna elaborated.  
"I can't speak for any of the others, but Chisame-san… You can share your worries with me."

Feeling her last wall crumble and the pent up stress and near-constant worry bear down on her once again,  
Chisame threw her arms around the half-demon in a firm embrace and buried her face in her shoulder.

Setsuna held her all throughout.  
Never once complaining about her being too loud, or crying for too long.  
Setsuna simply held her. Rocking slowly back and forth, drawing figures on the redhead's heaving back as  
she cried. Whispering reassurances every now and again.

No man or woman was an island. You could call yourself a loner all you liked, but in the end, you still needed  
someone to come up to you once in a while, and just tell you flat out, that everything will be alright.

No one could change their perspective of reality following one single discussion. However the seeds for  
change could still be sown. For, as Setsuna had heard both her masters, Tsuruko and Touko, say on more  
than one occasion; "When we reach our lowest point, we are the most open to change. And no matter how  
long the journey, it always begins, with but a single step.".

Setsuna had never once doubted those words.  
And holding the crying Chisame in her arms as she reached her point, did _nothing_ to change her mind.

* * *

Aaaand that is chapter, folks!

Whew...! Wait, am I reading this right? Over 4000 words and it's only the first chapter?

I really *am* long-winded! Hahahah! Ah well! I hope you will share some thoughts and feelings on this  
in the review section!

That said... To the next chapter cave!


	2. With you, my normal

Disclaimer: Yes, I still do NOT in fact own the Mahou Sensei Negima series or any of its kickass and awesome characters!  
If I did, then I'd have Evangeline be featured a LOT more prominently, and maybe even-

WHAP!

Urgh...! Ahem! Well then! Let the next and (probably) last chapter of this little story commence! *Lump forms on top of the one from chapter 1*

* * *

Chapter 2: With you, my normal

Yes, everything had changed, and _she_ along with it.  
However in the years following the final battle and all that jazz, something else had changed too.  
Something first brought on by that one, special evening in Mundus Magicus.

A very _distinct_ change…

One between two people… Who had hardly known each other at all.

* * *

Darkness and near-silence ruled together in perfect harmony, keeping the neat and tidy bedroom  
firmly under their rule.

… _Rustle_.

… _Rustle, rustle_.

Well, maybe not _perfect_ harmony.

On a decently sized bed, located in the lower left corner of the room, lay two figures.  
The two had fallen asleep peacefully enough a few hours prior, but one of them was now tossing and  
turning every five seconds or so. Back and forth the figure tossed, one movement throwing half the blanket  
off, revealing a decidedly female body clad in a simple lavender-colored nightgown. Her long red hair was free  
of its usual ribbon and lay spread out across her pillow.

… _Rustle, rustle!_

… _Rustle, rustle! _

… _Rustle, rustle, ru_-

The silence was shattered by an outdrawn groan.  
Slowly sitting up, the young woman placed her right hand softly against her face.

"Okay… That, was weird." She thought out loud in the form of a whisper.

As short as her dream had been, she still felt weirded out by it. Shaking her head, she quietly yawned and sleepily  
reminded herself that what she had just seen and heard in her mind wasn't-

_Rustle_…

"Nn… Un… Hey… What's wrong?"

Sparing her partner a glance, the redhead let out a chuckle, being well aware that she could see her smile,  
even in the darkness. As predicted, she was soon encircled by arms intimately familiar to her and pulled sideways  
and then backward into a sitting embrace.

"Alright, spill." She heard from behind her. "What just happened in that pretty head of yours?" Her partner said  
with an amused chuckle.

Nodding, the redhead leaned her head back on the taller woman's left shoulder.

"I dreamt."

"Yeah, I kind of gathered that. Bad one?"

Caressing her cheek in an affectionate gesture, she dipped down and connected their lips in a gentle kiss.  
As they parted, the redhead caressed the silky white strands of her partner's hair, smiling and just being at ease.  
Not at all ashamed at having woken up from a dream and having woken her partner as well at silly o'clock in  
the morning. She felt at ease here.

"_You_ were there. In my dream." She said, twirling a bit of the white mass.

"Me?" Her partner answered after kissing her on the top of her head.

"Yes… You said something."

"… Yeah?"

"…"

"… What did 'I' say?"

"…"

Heaving a sigh, she brushed some of her hair over her shoulder.

"Chisa-"

"You said you loved me and only me. And that you wanted no one else close to you."

Her partner raised an eyebrow and tilted her head slightly.

"… And you'd constitute that as a _bad_ dream? Forgive me, but I'm a bit confused… Wouldn't your girlfriend saying  
something like that make for a rather _good_ dream?"

Chisame smirked.

"You also said you didn't care about Konoka. Like at all."

"Well, that's… A tad weird." Her partner conceded.

Chisame's "antenna" jumped at this and she frowned.

"… 'A tad weird'…" She shook her head with a low chuckle emanating from her chest that passed swiftly into  
her throat. "Setsuna, that is not at the level of 'a tad weird'! That is supremely weird! That is…! That is…!"

Stealing her girlfriend's lips, as well as the air needed to speak, and thereby halting her stream of words,  
Setsuna smiled and kissed the side of her head, smelling her shampoo and a weak hint of what she assumed was  
lingering sweat from having tossed and turned.

"Everyone has dreams like that every now and again. It is a perfectly normal thing." Setsuna said with a nod.

Chisame just gave her a _look_.

"You have _got_ to be kidding me…" She said incredulously. "Asuna on a bad day, I can _maybe_ understand, but you."  
She jabbed her right index finger up and straight at the forehead of her girlfriend. "You telling Konoka, like right to  
the face, that you could not give any less of a rat's ass about her, now THAT…!" Chisame shook her head,  
her amused smile returning. "That, I cannot understand. Hell with that, I can't even _fathom_ it!"

"Hey now, me and Konoka are childhood and very good friends, not joined at the hip…" Setsuna said with the tone  
of someone who had said this a billion times before, albeit still with an amused smile.

"Yes, but… You'd still never say something like THAT to her…" Chisame shifted slightly in her embrace before getting  
comfortable, leaning her entire weight back on her partner, who nodded.

"I have a… Hard time seeing that happening anytime soon, yes. I would have to agree with you." Setsuna said with  
an amused laugh.

"Yep… But still, maaan…!" Chisame shook her head from side to side.

"Hmm?" Setsuna hummed encouragingly.

"That dream was just… _Messed up_. I mean, you grew up together, you reunited and re-bonded and damn well  
near wrote a _song_ about it!"

Setsuna blinked.

"Uh, no we didn't. I'd kill screeching cats with my voice, and Konoka would get whisked away by talent  
scouts and whatnot." She answered back easily.

"Still," Chisame retorted with a chuckle. "It doesn't fit the picture. It's like bread and butter suddenly not  
going well together with one another anymore.

"Doesn't fit your bill for 'normal', huh?"

Chisame looked up at her, taking in what she could see of her smile in the almost-not-there light, and loving  
every second of it.

"So, how are you going to deal with the strangeness of this… _Dream_?" Setsuna asked.

"Easy." Chisame said, grinning. "I simply overload myself with 'normal'."

"Heeeh…" Setsuna hummed with a smile. "And what, pray tell, would this _normal_ thing be?"

Chisame slid down her girlfriend's front until she was lying with her head in her lap, offering a wide, toothy smile  
as she reached up and pecked her lightly on the nose.

"You, of course." She whispered and pulled herself up and her down to meet halfway in a kiss.

Holding them there, she added;

"You are my _normal_, Setsuna… My beautiful, completely abnormal normal."

Lowering herself back down, Chisame looked straight into the eyes of the woman who, though only _slightly_,  
changed the way she looked at reality, all those years ago. An amused chuckle escaped the swordswoman.

"So what you're saying is, that _I_, a half-_demon_," Setsuna right about giggled, "Is your basis for what  
you think is _normal_?"

"Ab-so-_lutely_...!" Chisame said, dragging the word out. "So take some responsibility already, would ya?"

Matching the warmth of her smile with a smile of her own, Setsuna used her strength (built on thousands of hours  
of training, as well as a "little" Tengu blood) to easily maneuver Chisame into a position underneath her.

Getting on top of her, Setsuna pecked her on the forehead and whispered;

"Overloading you with 'normal', huh…?"

Chisame's heart-rate quickened as the whitenette's hand slowly made its way up her thigh, touching the  
edges of her nightgown and keeping on going.

"Since this 'normal' thing you speak of seemingly comes from me, I have a few…_ideas_ as to how to accomplish that…"

Her hand reached a _delicate_ spot on the redhead's lower anatomy, coaxing a sound stuck between a whimper  
and a moan to leave her lips, her hips jerking in reflex.

"… Care to try them out with me?"

Chisame's grin was _all_ the answer Setsuna needed.

* * *

Yes, they had both found a person they felt understood them.

Setsuna, who loved to soar high in the sky, had found an anchor on which she could base herself on, a place she knew she could always return to, no matter _how_ high she would fly.

Chisame, who had always loved logic and normality, had found herself an eagle that pulled her anchor out of the ground, carrying her off into the sky, and taught her how to fly.

Love…

Had found _them_.

* * *

Aaaand that is a wrap! Thank you all! Even should no one read or review this, I thank you anyway!

Aaaah! Finally getting this one out of my system feels *good*!

That leaves only... What, like a few hundred more stories? *Grumbles and reaches for my pencil and notebook*  
Better get to work...

And yes, I do write on paper first, at least most of the time, before "translating" the product to digital form.

Seeya next story! What's that? Will I keep writing Negima fanfics? You *bet* I will!

But for now, there's this really, really, stubborn story concerning the wonderful world of Touhou that wants out of my head. So I might as well oblige that one next.


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